Category: Photography


The Way We Remember


Hopewell Baptist Church

 

I went back to my home-town not too long ago. There is a church there called Hopewell Baptist Church that is very old and no longer active – but the families of the original congregation still get together once a year and celebrate home-coming. Since I am a bit estranged from my family I chose to go at a time when I knew it would be abandoned. There is a cemetery there where some of my family is buried. I love to walk among the graves and touch the tombstones and commune with the people I miss so much.

 

Never Forgotten

The person I miss the most is my grandmother. Ever since she died I have felt like a part of my heart is missing. She was the one person who always saw me. She never made me feel invisible or inconvenient. She always made me feel special and seen and heard. She did not know all of the horrible things I was going through and scarcely a day goes by that I don’t wish I could have told her. I wish I could sit down with her now with a cup of tea and tell her all about it. I love her and I miss her so very much.

I am fascinated by how people choose to remember their loved ones… I saw these while walking on a boardwalk at Falling Creek Falls…

 

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Goodbye

 

Miss you

 

 

Seeing these made me wonder how I could honor and remember… and I decided to let my photographs speak for themselves… I hope you enjoy them – there is nothing that I could say about them without sounding trite… these photos are my memorial… Friends of Hopewell, I pray you feel my deep love and kinship in these photos… my thoughts are with you…

 

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Waiting

 

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All American Holiday


I love the feel of good old fashioned celebration…I enjoyed being amongst the crowd watching the fireworks and hearing the ooh’s aah’s and cheering.  It feels like community and makes me long for the America portrayed in Norman Rockwell paintings.

American Fourth

 

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Dandilion Firework

 

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I snapped this one dewy morning – the yard was full of dew covered spider webs and I had a fantastic time photographing them. I hope you enjoy viewing them as much as I loved taking them.  Spider webs have always fascinated me, and I especially love the way the dew looks like diamonds.

 

Pearls on Silk

Diamond Strands

Beauty in the AM

Beauty ~ Dew Covered Rose


I snapped this the other morning and bled the color nearly out of it… hope you enjoy…Today is one of those days I feel like the color is draining from my life… so I thought this photo would be appropriate.

 

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Summer Days


Manarda (Bee Balm) blooming against the sky

Manarda (Bee Balm) blooming against the sky

 

This guy landed on me while I was pulling weeds.

This guy landed on me while I was pulling weeds.

 

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Arguing with Zeus


I was cleaning some weeds out of my flower bed when the storm blew in… first the darkening sky, then the wind that felt so good against my flushed skin… covered in sweat from the effort and humidity… then the storm crashed over me… it was like the opening of a faucet… no gentle rain, this… this was angry, stinging, fat drops of rain that were punishing as they hit. I refused to be swayed and defiantly knelt in the now-mud, pulling weeds and trying to resist the temptation to shake my fist angrily at the sky in some clichéd move. Soon, soaked to the skin and nearly blinded by the water running over my face I gave in… driven in by the lightning and thunder popping all around me. I almost dared the storm to strike me… feeling angry and spoiling for a fight – not that a fight against nature is one I am likely to win… Still…. the storm darkened sky did not disappoint – nor did the wet leaves in the soft after-storm light… Hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them… storm-weary and muttering at the sky.

Stormy Skies

Thunder in the distance

After the Storm (2)

Quickie


Lady Liberty

Just a quick photo post to say hello! I am on vacation in NYC – wanted to share a shot with you… Falling in love with New York this week… the diversity, the noise, the bustle…

 

Self Portrait


Pain

After years of self-abuse (cutting, drinking, drugs etc) I finally found the strength to cry out for help – that is what has gotten me to where I am today… I could not have made it this far without help and I would not have received help until I got brave enough to ask for it… I nearly waited too late to ask someone to take the knife out of my hand.

 

Help Me

I am finally seeing the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel… and though I still have the occasional flash back, it no longer cripples me nor does it define me.  My past is a part of what made me the woman I am today but it is not all that I am.  I know it does not have to consume me.  I have battled my way through terror, pain, frantic desperation and humiliation but I am here.  I am alive… possibly for the first time in my life I am not just existing…. I am LIVING.

 

A Day at the Beach


I spent the day driving along A1A visiting Little Talbot Island, Big Talbot Island, Amelia Island and Fort Clinch State Park. I thought I would share some of my photos from my trip.

 

Fences along the dunes... I love these falling down fences, so beautiful despite their weakness.

Fences along the dunes… I love these falling down fences, so beautiful despite their weakness.

I love the vibrant colors and textures I always find along the beach.

I love the vibrant colors and textures I always find along the beach.

 

I love watching the sand-pipers pick their way along the beach... and I think the footprints they leave behind are so cute.

I love watching the sand-pipers pick their way along the beach… and I think the footprints they leave behind are so cute.

 

I love the way the light turns golden as the sun prepares to set...

I love the way the light turns golden as the sun prepares to set…

 

I love this old bronze cross in St Augustine... It is beautiful and I love the way it shines in the sun.

I love this old bronze cross in St Augustine… It is beautiful and I love the way it shines in the sun.

 


Weathered

I spent the day at the beach a few weeks ago… I am often drawn to the broken, the weathered, the things textured and made beautiful by time, wind, sand, rain… I feel connected to the beautiful and broken.